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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
- They don't notify winners by email.
- You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
- They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
- They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
- They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
- They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
- They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- microsoftclaims111@yahoo.com.hk (Yahoo, Hong Kong; can be used from anywhere worldwide)
Fraud email example:
From: "MICROSOFT PROMOTIONS 2011" <info@oarquitectura.co.cr>
Reply-To: microsoftclaims111@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2011 11:55:21 -0600
Subject: Congratulations!!!Winner
Congratulations!!!
This 1st day of November 2011, the entire staff of Microsoft Corporation
(Promotion Department) wish to inform you that you have just been selected
as a lucky winner from the Microsoft Mid-Year email draws that is usually
held twice in every year.
Microsoft Corporation organize this promotion offer in other to compensate
consumers of the product in the world at large for their infinite supports
towards the growth of the company.
Hence you have won $1,900,000 USD (One Million Nine Hundred Thousand
Dollars) and you are expected to fill and send back the following
following for claims:
Full Name.............
Address...............
Sex...................
Marital Status........
Age...................
Country...............
Occupation............
Telephone Numbers.....
TO: microsoftclaims111@yahoo.com.hk
Congratulations!! Once again.
Yours in service,
The Award Team
(Microsoft Corporation)
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Anti-fraud resources:
